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There’s a whole new world of trouble for the women of Litchfield (Picture: Netflix)

We’ll be honest – we weren’t holding out much hope for Orange Is The New Black’s ladies of Litchfield going into season six.

*We’re not revealing any big spoilers about the new series, there are minor spoilers and, if you haven’t watched series five, there are major spoilers ahead*

With the prison riots of season five proving to be somewhat of a clunky and dragged out plot, the OG Netflix darling appeared to have reached its peak.

Thankfully season six brings it back to what we know and love as all the inmates lives are changed forever thanks to their arrival in Max.

The plot device is a clever one because it allows show bosses to strip away the unessential cast and instead focus in on a handful of girls. Unfortunately, it does mean that some fan favourites have become collateral damage in the bid to re-focus (no spoilers) and have completely disappeared.

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But it does allow new wannabe top dogs to come in and cause a fuss among the ‘cookies’ that have arrived in their realm – mainly Badison (the try-hard wannabe hard nut) and Daddy (the overtly sexual lesbian whose smooth demeanour will turn anyone gay for the stay).

The girls are forced to readjust to the new power play in town – and become divided between Barbara and Carol, two warring sisters on separate blocks whose fight for control of the prison system has left many left to dust in their wake.

With comedy comes the grief, and season six has both in huge doses (Picture: Netflix)

And the Max guards make Pornstache look like Mother Teresa in their efforts to be as useless, cruel and demeaning as possible.

The series still manages to balance that quirky sense of humour with the heart-breaking realities the girls have to face. The quiet Daya is almost unrecognisable from her days of flirtation with the prison guards as she has nothing left to lose, Nicky misses being near her ‘mum’ Red, and Piper is still all too easily the victim and just wants to know where her Alex is.

However, the shining star of this season is Taystee (played by Danielle Brooks), and her heart-breaking isolation as she comes to realise exactly how much the prison riots and fight for justice for Poussey has cost her.

The newbies of Max are here to make life hard for the new ‘cookies’ (Picture: Netflix)

With everyone out for themselves and allowing her to become the scapegoat for something that wasn’t her fault, Taystee instead finds solace in an unlikely ally, as warden Caputo suddenly brings in a whole heap of warmth and determination to help in a way he has failed to do the five seasons prior.

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The days of unity are long gone, and the factions that kept a weird harmony among the prisoners no longer exists.

As always, each inmate has their own story and it’s not something that makes it easy to review without giving too much away. But, the season does a bang up job of mixing in the political with the dramatic. Black Lives Matter gets a nod, prison reform isn’t far behind, the ever-present use of drugs in the facility also continues to be a prominent structure point.

However, there were certain members of the cast that definitely got a bad rap – and we’re not just talking the ones that didn’t even make the cut for this series.

Some stories were wrapped up or left out to dry with little to no explanation. Pennsatucky is one such victim of this.

But overall the series is back to its enticing self, and while there are flaws, it’s definitely nice to return to Litchfield for another stay.

Orange is the New Black airs on Netflix from 27 July.

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